The Greenville Book Party

Boston Tea Party move over. America has a new favorite riot, or at least we do here in South Carolina. This past Saturday I joined a crowd of about 10,000 and picketed outside McCalister Square-a former shopping mall turned into an educational complex. It was a peaceful gathering at first, but at 8:30AM the crown acted as one and charged the building, overwhelming the staff and causing utter mayhem. I escaped after an hour with my loot but the chaos ruled for several more hours as the staff vainly attempted to keep the tables stocked with books. Books?!?

Saturday was the annual "Very Good, Very Big, Very Cheap Book Sale" here in Greenville. 116,000 used books were donated over the last year to the Greenville Literacy Association and they sell them all (or as many as possible in one day), setting them up in boxes in tables throughout the complex. We got in line about a minute before they opened the doors and began the mad dash for the best bargains. Within 10 minutes I had said "oops, sorry" or some form of apology for bumping into people so many times that I began to pretend I didn't notice.

Last year we came to the sale empty handed, not anticipating how many good books there were for such low prices. By the end of the sale, I was balancing about 20 books while trying to pick out other ones. This time we brought our Extra Large L.L. Bean Canvas Tote Bag and stuffed it full of books (my shoulder surgery is scheduled for Tuesday).

After an hour we left with 31 books (cost: $41) including a biography on Thomas Jefferson, gardening books, a detailed atlas of Britain (Scotland is our planned destination for vacation next year), and finally a large collection of novels. Most of them were obtained peacefully but I did have to beat an old lady over the head with Sarah's copy of The Book of Virtues ($3) in order to get the last copy of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil($2).

(Author's Note: Picture above not actually taken at the book sale. If you didn't know that already. . .)